The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us. - Following the Equator

About Me

The Sites

Monday, October 25, 2004

A Poor Republican is Like a Christian Satanist

I had an interesting discussion with some friends this weekend. As it usually does, the conversation drifted from one topic to another and didn't seem to have any direction. One of the interesting questions that came up was "Why do poor people vote for Republicans?"

I have to admit, to a rational person it makes no sense whatsoever. Why would the Republicans get one single vote from a group of people they systematically screw at every opportunity?

Make no mistake, the Republicans screw the poor and middle class every time. If their in a good mood, they MIGHT supply the K-Y in the form of a couple of crumbs. For instance, the $300.00 bribe that Bush used to buy your vote last time. While his tax plan gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax rebates to the rich, the average family got less than a dollar a day AND they had to declare that $300.00 as income for the year.

So why does anyone who makes less than say $100,00.00 a year vote for a Republican?

Turns out it's a simple answer, really. Ignorance.

The undeclared Republican War on Education has borne fruit. Fruit in the form of ignorant rednecks and creationist nincompoops who really, truly believe that they got it right, no matter how wrong they are. Like my grandfather used to say, "They aren't half as smart as they think they are."

I bet it can be shown by facts and figures that a poor republican shares a couple of common traits. First, their christian. Not necessarily fundamentalists, but christians who have been trained from an early age to ignore the evidence if it disagrees with what they were told by the preacher. Of course they haven't worked out the whole inquisitive thing. They just don't know any better.

Second, they are delusional when it comes to money and wealth. They're the ones that tell themselves that it's better to be happy than rich. They're also the idiots that can't seem to break out of the hand to mouth cycle. (I make around half of the official poverty level, and yet I have managed to save thousands of dollars.) As a result, they have no clue as to how taxation affects income levels. (hint: It greases the wheels of the economy. The lower the taxes, the less grease available to make things run smoothly.)

Third, a seriously overblown obsession about (x) issue. Guns, Abortion, Taxes, etc. Generally, the obsessive ones are the christians because they have no ability to question what they're told. So they just clamp onto whatever issue affects their hobby (guns) and don't let go. They lack perspective. These are generally the type that if Christ himself came down and told them not to vote for Bush, they'd spit on him and call him a damned hippie.

1 comment:

You're probably already familiar with the little factoid that says the best determiner of someone's party affiliation, far outweighing their economic situation, is how often they go to church. If I were a religious person myself, I'd be horrified. Instead, as a nearly-atheistic, socialist cliche, I sigh loudly, and often.